Instant win lottery games have been extremely popular for decades. These games offer the benefit of instant gratification compared to other similar type games, whether administered by government lottery authorities or by private business. Accordingly, they have attracted broad appeal. Most instant win games and programs involve the issuance of lottery type tickets which either contain a pre-printed lottery number or a “scratch-off surface”, which when removed reveals whether the holder of the ticket is an instant winner. In other similar games the user must check its pre-printed serial number against a published list to determine if the ticket holder is a winner New forms of instant win type games are regularly being created and quickly develop interest by a large segment of the population. As such, it is desirable to provide new and innovate games that both provide the opportunity for a player to win a prize, and also provide a variety of ways of winning the prize, which adds to the entertainment value of and interest in the instant win game. Further, instant win games in environments that do not require the issuance of a lottery type ticket are becoming even more popular.
Various gaming systems incorporating instant win characteristics are also known and have been previously described. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,375,568 to Roffman et al. , which is hereby incorporated in its entirety by reference, discloses an interactive gaming process and system having a plurality of gaming machines to be played by a plurality of players. The system can be configured such that the gaming machines are either located in a casino or at internet locations. Each gaming machine comprises a wagering game and a theme game. The wagering game has features that correspond to the theme game wherein the results of the wagering game influence the results of the theme game as the wagering game is being played. The system also includes a controller for electronically linking the gaming machines and providing stimuli to the gaming machines to affect gaming machine outputs that are impartial and random. In one embodiment, the plurality of players play the wagering game as a group wherein if one player's theme game results meet predetermined criteria, that particular player will play for the group. The group will then have the opportunity to split a jackpot. In another embodiment, the plurality of players play as a group wherein activation of each player's wagering game either helps or hinders the group as a whole in its effort to achieve a predetermined goal. In a further embodiment, the players play their respective wagering game to directly compete against each other in the theme game. The results of the wagering games determine the winnings of each player, the eventual winner of the theme game and/or any predetermined jackpot.
However, the forgoing types of instant win games and themes are usually associated with stand-alone gaming systems and are rarely integrated with other systems, such as social media communication networks.